Security vendor Avast has teamed up with Microsoft, latest Avast antivirus 2015 R2SP2 automatically installs Skype if you don’t have it installed on your computer or if you don’t carefully uncheck the option ‘Yes, also install Skype’ on the free antivirus setup’s welcome screen (check the screenshot below).
This is not new to Avast users as the Antivirus company has offered Dropbox, Google Drive and other third-party software along with it in the past, now Skype.
Avast redesigns Online Security Plugin for Chrome, enables DNT by default
You can uninstall this way installed applications from the ‘Programs and Features’ or ‘Add or Remove Programs’ in Control Panel.
While Avast installs Skype, you can notice ‘Avast Offer Installation Tool’ with the name ‘aswOfferTool.exe’ process running in the task manager.
What’s new in Avast Antivirus 2015 R2SP2 (2015.10.2.2218)
- Faster start after reboot – some components are loaded later
- File System Shield – solved incompatibility with TrueCrypt
- File System Shield – exclusions work again
- Added option to install Skype during Avast installation
- StreamFilter – Improved compatibility with other AV products
Avast 2015 R2 beta adds Windows 10 Support and integrates Browser Cleanup into the UI
Bonus: Avast Free Antivirus 2015.10.2.2218 offline installer | 145.47 MB
Has this annoyed you?
Q) Has this annoyed you?
A) Most definitely, Avast software is installed to protect the user from nefarious foes, now we find out that Avast underhandedly slithers in unneeded and potentially dangerous, if configured incorrectly software. Most computer users will never understand that skype is bundled with that mandatory Avast upgrade and depending on how skype is configured by Avast that unneeded software opens another vector that the nefarious ones will exploit.
Basically a scumbag move by Avast, this will create more work and distrust for the people that service computers and in the end Avast will loose face and the trust of the people that once supported a trustworthy company.
MrEthiopian
MrEthiopian, thanks for sharing your opinion.
I totally agree to the prior comment. I installed Avast yesterday and inadvertently installed Skype and now have pc issues. I had installed and used Avast for many years at work and home….no more. The technician kept saying that DropBox and Google were offered…but definitely not Skype! There was an offer to help fix our pc for a huge fee. Goodbye Avast.
And thank you for this article…it was so helpful.
Sorry disappointed, but free version users always targeted with these unwanted software.
I agree with above mentioned comments. I had already Skype and it was disabled from autostart with Windows. Even I removed plugin from browsers my firewall warned me every 2-3 hours that Skype want to start from some temp folder inside Windows!? I went there, renamed skype.exe to sskype.exe but few hours later firewall appears again with same message! There were now 2 files, old and new skype.exe. Then I deleted whole folder Skype in path C:\Windows\Temp\avast_ash2\Skype. Damn, I’ll check avast and if Avast start it I’ll remove avast and go back to AVG.
I’ve been using Avast! Antivirus for years because it’s mission statement was always antivirus should be free for the home.
I also liked that it had a small running profile, meaning that it didn’t bog down my machine. Not so much anymore. It seems my computer idles at 36% memory usage. Don’t know that it’s all Avast but it seems to slow down more whenever I update it, and it freezes constantly during definitions updates something that should only take 1 minute with fast internet.
Looking for an alternative.
How about switching to built-in Windows Defender?